Joseph Lord

A Louisville man is claiming that the Maker's Mark Bourbon House and Lounge at Fourth Street Live refused to allow him to host a party at the venue because all of the party-goers would be African-American, says a lawsuit filed this week in Jefferson Circuit Court.

Andre Mulligan alleges that the Maker's Mark Lounge "officials" asked him about the "'ratio' of 'black people' to 'white people' at the planned party during a meeting, the lawsuit said.

Strong winds are expected early Thursday afternoon into the evening, ahead of "much cooler" temperatures, the National Weather Service said.

Wind gusts could reach as strong as 55 miles per hour; sustained winds will be as strong as 30 miles per hour, said a wind advisory from the weather service.

Mayor Greg Fischer's office has announced six new retailers for the South Fourth Street corridor in downtown Louisville -- citing a study that says downtown has thus far reached only 52 percent of its retail sales potential.

The announcement Thursday was touted as a successful public-private partnership between the city, business owners and the Louisville Downtown Development Corporation, which commissioned a market study that showed "you can double your retail potential downtown if its done right," said Alan DeLisle, executive director of LDDC. 

A clearer picture has emerged of the standoff between the Paducah Sun and the McCracken County Sheriff's Office that prompted a school closure earlier this week.

Clearer, but not prettier.

Authorities now believe that a letter received by the Paducah Sun on Monday referenced an incident the previous week that had already been investigated. A couple of kids in Paducah's Reidland High School were talking about the video game Minecraft; their chatter about placing bombs—part of the game—was misinterpreted as a possible threat.

No harm, no foul.

A letter shows up at the Paducah Sun. The writer says a student has twice brought a weapon to Reidland High School and has mapped out gun and bomb attacks around the school.

What comes next has set off a controversy over school safety, journalism ethics and the closure of a western Kentucky high school for the day.

Which city should be first in line for an NBA team, should one relocate or an expansion franchise be created?

Louisville, writes attorney Darren Heitner on Forbes.com.

Heitner is a professor of sports management at Indiana University and the founder of the Sports Agent Blog. He writes that Seattle and Virginia Beach are contenders, too, but Louisville has advantages such as an existing NBA-caliber arena and demonstrated support for basketball, albeit at the college level.

WFPL will have a special discussion at 1 p.m. Tuesday on what an NBA franchise would mean for Louisville -- the feasibility of pro basketball in Louisville and the possible positive and negative ramifications for the city.

J. Blaine Hudson is resigning  at the end December as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Louisville, a post he's held since 2004.

Hudson took a leave of absence in August for medical reasons. He told faculty then in an e-mail that he'd had cranial surgery but his prognosis was positive.

Metro Louisville recently completed an audit of  Dismas Charities Inc., which found that the workers who were jail inmates were not signing in and out assignment or were properly monitored. Here's the audit report:

The scale of the Newtown elementary school shooting is unprecedented, but Hollan Holm understands what the people in that Connecticut town are enduring.

Holm was wounded in December 1997 when a student -- Michael Carneal, then 14 -- opened fire in Heath High School in West Paducah, killing three.